An electric toothbrush may incorporate a brush section that couples to a handle section. A drive shaft may extend from the handle section with the drive shaft being coupled to an electric drive disposed within an interior of the handle section. The electric drive may impart a rotary, oscillating or combined rotary oscillating motion to the drive shaft so that the drive shaft is movable in a rotary or oscillating manner. The brush section can couple and secure to the handle section with the drive shaft coupling to a coupling element of the brush section, e.g., a shaft or drive pin. The motion of the drive shaft can be imparted upon the coupling element to provide a desired cleaning action to a brush head portion of the brush section.
One such toothbrush brush section is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0307591 to inventors Farrell et al. As more fully described in that prior application, it concerns electric toothbrush designs which are particularly suitable for use in conjunction with a traditional manual brushing action. The present application sets forth several improvements to the designs of Farrell et al., and other previously known toothbrush designs. More specifically, the present application sets forth a brush head construction which minimizes the likelihood of pinching mucosa within a user's mouth, by minimizing gaps between brush sections which move relative to one another. As used herein, “mucosa” is broadly defined to include all soft tissues within a person's mouth, such as the interior cheek surfaces, the gum tissue, the lip tissue, and the tongue. A low profile brush section is also provided herein.